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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (April 19, 2006)
SIX - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, April 19,2006 * Elect Oregon Brand Department in financial dilemma ★ K en G rie b M orrow C o u n ty C o m m issio n e r “ Working for ALL of Morrow County ” Morrow County Grain Growers’ Board Morrow County Wheat Growers’ President 1999 & 2000 Oregon Wheat Growers’ League President 2003 Morrow County Soil & Water Conservation District 1998- Present Morrow County Planning Commission 1997-Present Morrow County School District Advisory Committee 1999- 2003 Lobby wheat issues at State and National level SMART reading volunteer, Heppner Elementary School Oregon Wheat Foundation Board lone Community Agri-Business Organization North Morrow Vector Control District National Association of Wheat Growers’ Budget Com mittee Morrow County School District Ag Science Advisory Committee OSU Extension Advisory Committee Morrow County Pre-Disaster Mitigation Committee K e n G rie b Leadership for Morrow County Paid for by Elect Grieb Committee C U ST O M BA N N ER S H eppner G a z e tte -T im e s We Print Business Cards Heppner G azette 676-9228 Would you take two hours and drive fifty miles to earn $17.50? Would you provide and pay an employee from 7 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. to earn $75? Would you pay an employee to do nothing and earn nothing for two h o u rs? W ell, no, you w o u ld n ’t. But you do. T h ro u g h our brand registrations and fees we are helping pay for all of these money-losing activities. And what if you had to pay 44 Vi cents per mile for the vehicle the employee drives and pay the employee $ 10.50 an hour or more? Let’s see, $10.50 loaded equals about $ 15 and fifty miles at 44 Vi cents per mile equals about $22. That $ 1 7 .5 0 you earn ed cost about $52. So, how long can this business model last? By the latest e stim a te s, Brand Department officials say it can last until about January 2007. Without changes in program, income, or both, the Brand Department will be broke. And since the Brand Department is a user- funded program within the O regon D ep artm en t o f Agriculture, there will be no bailout. The departm ent would simply close its doors. And, you might ask, who is responsible for this go-broke endeavor? You could blame management, but you would be wrong. You could blame inept e m p lo y ees or supervisors but, again, you’d be w rong. O ver the past dozen y ears the B rand Department has become a lean, cost-conscious, labor conscious, w ell-m anaged operation. If you want to blame anyone, you should blame us all, and the cost of labor and the cost of fuel and vehicles and the cost of S T O R E CLOSING Every Item Is On Sale! su p p lie s and ren t and everything else that is needed to run a business. We ask the brand inspector to come out 20 miles and inspect two horses at $3.75 each. The inspector charges us the $7.50 plus the $10 service charge and the b ran d d e p artm en t lo ses about $10. We ask the brand inspector to hang around until the last load of three cull cows arrives at the sale yard at 3:15 p.m. The fee is $2.25 and we paid the in sp e c to r $30 to stan d aro u n d fo r tw o ho u rs waiting for those three cows. In 2000, about 1,250,000 c attle w ere in sp ected in Oregon at 75 cents per head. In 2005, about 1,100,000 cattle were inspected at the same rate. That decrease of 150,000 head cost the Brand Department about $ 112,500. But the actual number of inspections d id n ’t change much. There were fewer animals inspected per visit but the number of trips and hours rem ained about the same. So costs increased and revenue dropped. (It’s about the same as when the market goes down year after year but your costs per cow keep go in g up.) In 2000, the reimbursement for a brand inspector to drive his own vehicle was about 31 cents per mile. The latest figure is 44 Vi cents per mile. Okay, you say rather grudgingly, raise the per head fee a little and wring out more excess. As with ev ery th in g , i t ’s not that simple. The per head fee at 75 cents is at the ceiling authorized by the legislature. L ik ew ise w ith the $10 service fee, the various horse in sp ectio n fees, and the b ran d re g istra tio n and renewal fees. An increase in any of these fees will require new leg islatio n , and the legislature doesn’t meet until 2 007. In the end, a fte r poking and prodding, and w o rry in g ev ery fee and number (kind of like getting tangled up in a big cobweb) the p ro b le m ’s so lu tio n resolves into two parts. Part one is a plan to keep the department solvent through the 2007 legislative session. Part two is to devise a plan that will place the d e p artm en t on a sound fin a n c ia l base fo r the foreseeable future and to ask for legislation to implement the plan. A b o u t the only income producing measure th a t can be taken now, w ithout legislation, is to implement an administrative rule that will assess a time and mileage charge on field in sp e c tio n s. The B rand A dvisory C om m ittee has recom m ended that a $15 time and mileage charge on each field in sp ectio n be adopted by rule as an interim measure. The charge would beg in as soon as the administrative rule process can be completed, probably in about 90 days. Brand Department officials predict that the $15 charge w ill allow the d ep artm en t to c o n tin u e to p erfo rm its function through the 2007 legislative session. Along with the $15 charge, the six salaried, full tim e brand supervisors stationed around the State will be directed to perform as many inspections as possible by themselves. This measure will take full advantage of the salaried supervisor’s time and save the cost of using a part time, hourly employee and paying m ileag e on those inspections. Additionally, the two investigators will be d ire c te d to sto p p atro l a c tiv itie s. T h ese th ree measures will constitute part one. So, w ith the program shored up by the $15 charge and the other economies, the department and the industry will be able to d ire c t energy tow ard formulating a plan, and the necessary leg islatio n , to place the department on a Sheriff’s Report sound financial base for the future. The components of that plan (part two) are open fo r d iscu ssio n . Som e possible pieces might be: R aise the ceilin g on the various fees to allow more flexibility; Reformulate the h o rse p ro g ram ; In itiate su rc h arg e s; C h an g e the estray rules; Change staffing levels; Get funding for the investigators from the State Police budget; Review every facet of the program; Ask the legislature to fund a portion o f the brand departm ent’s co st; and D iscu ss and evaluate “outside the box” ideas. The goal o f the Brand Department and of the B rand A d v iso ry C om m ittee is to retain a v iab le and e ffe ctiv e in sp ec tio n pro g ram as economically as possible. P lease com m ent. O ur b ran d pro g ram has helped our animals and our livelihoods for over 80 years. We need to keep it viable into the future for animal id e n tific a tio n , d isease traceback, age and source v e rific a tio n , the ev er increasing need to know more about our animals, and w hatever other new stuff shows up, confounding our ability to be successful in an ever changing industry. -M C SO cite d The Morrow County Thomas Jeffery Leiferman, Sheriff’s Office reports han dling the following business: 30, for V iolation o f the Speed Limit, 82 mph in a 65 A p ril 15: BPD mph zone. -MCSO cited David issued a citation to Dana Jo Zirpoli, 35, for Violation of Willis, 42, for driving while the Speed Limit, 87 mph in suspended and failing to a 65 mph zone. prove vehicle registration. -MCSO cited Adria Arley Jay Hamilton, 47, was Sum i L ay n e, 20, fo r cited for Failure to Register Violation of the Speed Limit, V ehicle/Sw itch Plate and 89 mph in a 65 mph zone. P e rm ittin g U n law fu l -MCSO cited Troy Operation of a Vehicle. Thom as Lam ont, 35, for A p ril 16: M CSO Violation of the Speed Limit, cited Deborah Anne Cronk, 83 mph in a 65 mph zone. 58, was cited for Violation -M C SO cited of the Speed Limit, 88 mph Temaleti Volav Vakaloloma, in a 65 mph zone. -MCSO cited Peter 46, for Violation of the Basic G raham K lym , 19, for Rule, 78 mph in a 55 mph Violation of the Speed Limit, zone. -Boardman PD arrested 84 mph in a 65 mph zone. -MCSO received a Ernesto Gomez, 23, for report that the neighbor’s pit D U II(B A C . 19), Violation bull bit a lady twice. Kristi of the Basic Rule, 50 mph Dawn Rogers, 29, was cited in a 20 mph zone, and No for Maintaining a Dog as a Operator’s License. Public Nuisance. -M C SO cited Births Edward Joseph Meyers, 48, M a tth e w G le n n for Violation of the Basic Rule, 84 mph in a 55 mph W rig h t- a son, M atthew Glenn, was bom April 13, zone. -M C SO cite d 2006 to Brent and Nadia of B end. Manuel A. Reyes Alarcon, W right 29, for V iolation o f the Grandparents are Nadezda Speed Limit, 82 mph in a 65 and Jarda Rohlik of Paterltil, Czech Republic, Judy Knight mph zone. -MCSO cited Rafael of Bend and Kenny Wright Cansino, 24, for Violation of of Bakersfield, CA. Great- the Speed Limit, 93 mph in grandparents are Lenna and Glenn Smith of Heppner and a 65 mph zone. Mary Wright of Newberg. M ember FDIC Custom er Appreciation bay! *** EXTRA DISCOUNTS END SATURDAY, APRIL 22nd STORE HOURS 9:00 to 6:00 MON. to SAT. Closed Sundays HEPPNER HARDWARE 106 MAY STREET HEPPNER, OR 97836 0 Come into the bank on April 21, 2006, and get a free Car Wash Coupon - then take time to let the Heppner High School Football Team wash that grit and grime from your automobile! (BEO is making a $500 donation to the team!) (Here's your chance to watch them perform off the field!) Time: Between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Car Wash Area: Drive Thru side of the Bank And every Friday in April, the bank will have free cookies and coffee, too!!”
